The Power of Mindfulness

It’s a very odd time for everyone as we navigate this new world in which we find ourselves, and as we slowly realize there won’t quite be a ‘going back to normal,’ for better or worse. As structures we thought were stable, injustices we knew were not, illusions, and life as we knew it lies in rubble, I do believe there will be opportunity for us to collectively rise from the ashes, so to speak. However, I want to offer a suggestion in the meantime: Don’t skip the step of processing your feelings, your anger, your grief, shock, disappointment, and disillusionment. These are important emotions to acknowledge, process and feel, before expecting to create anew. And the most important way to understand where you are and what you’re feeling, is by getting present and becoming mindful. When we’re mindless, emotions can control us; we over-eat, endlessly scroll on social media, lash out at others (people we love and people we don’t even know), they can keep us in anxiety and depression, and hold us hostage.

 

Yet staying mindful, or present and aware, is no easy feat in a world of constant news cycles, tweets, social media, and an ever-changing global crisis. Even when confined to our homes, many of us find ourselves as mindless as ever, as we constantly consume discord and more food and TV than we can keep track of. I say this as someone who is going through all the ups and downs too, in not so high fashion. I can tell you that the days which are good for me are those in which I’m present to what I’m really feeling, the days I explore where the anger or sadness is coming from, and allow myself to process it. From a place of truth and acceptance of ‘what is,’ comes the wisdom of what to do next, whether it be to take an action against an injustice, to offer help to someone in need, to allow yourself some extra rest, or to cook yourself a healthy meal. As Eckhart Tolle says, “Stress is caused by being ‘here’ but wanting to be ‘there’.” So let’s start by being here, now,* as uncomfortable as it might feel. *Apologies to Ram Dass.

 

Here are just a few of the many benefits of practicing mindfulness:

• Brings you into the present moment
• Lowers stress and anxiety
• Reduces emotional eating
• Helps with proper portions (hearing your own hunger)
• Helps you think straight and become more effective at work and home
• Increases creativity
• Allows for gratitude and perspective
• Improves mood

 

How to practice mindfulness.

If you already have a mindfulness practice, great! Commit to it now more than ever. If you don’t, here are some tools and options to try:

1. 1. Meditation: This is one of the best and oldest practices to help you come to stillness and mindfulness. Here’s a list of online resources and apps that will teach and guide you through meditations, visualizations, and mindfulness exercises: Chopra Center Meditations  (one of my faves, they often offer free 21-day courses), Headspace (currently offering a free year-long membership to those who are unemployed), Insight Timer (free), Calm, UCLA Mindful (free), Aura, Mindfulness Daily, The Mindfulness App, Alomoves App. You can also check out your local yoga and meditation studios. Try a few and choose what appeals to you.
   2. Deep breathing: Breath connects you to your body and brings you to the present moment. Quite literally, breath is life. Deep breathing also sends lots of oxygen to the brain, which signals to the brain that you’re safe, which lowers cortisol levels, and in turn lowers inflammation. You can start by just focusing on your breath for a length of time and deepening it, or you can try formal breathing exercises like Dr. Weil’s 4-7-8 exercise.
   3. Body connection: Put your hand on your heart and feel your heartbeat for a full minute. Try self-massage of your feet or other parts of your body. Take the time to stretch slowly, do yoga, or anything else that encourages connection to your body. In addition to numerous free videos online for yoga and other mind/body classes, I also recommend these two great studios: One Down Dog, and Heal Haus. Body mindfulness is crucial for hearing your body’s signals, like what foods make you feel good vs. bad (which can help you develop intrinsic motivation to choose healthier foods), it also taps you into your real hunger, which is helpful for appropriate portions, and helps to create self-love and compassion.
   4. Mindful eating: There’s a lot of distraction in our world; while we eat we might be watching TV, the news, scrolling or working. What we’re not doing is experiencing the food in our mouths, fully tasting, chewing, and breathing (which also helps our digestion). We most likely need less food right now since we’re not engaging in functional exercise (the movement in our everyday lives before shelter-at-home), yet we may be eating more because of the desire for comfort, and the disconnection we experience while eating. Try taking more time with each meal and with fewer distractions, take a breath in between bites, put your fork down, take time to chew and taste. Getting present to the process of eating will bring us back to our real hunger.
   5. Journaling: There’s no better way to get present to your feelings than by acknowledging them on paper. It’s also a very good and safe way to process your emotions so they don’t get stuck inside you or come out in unhealthy ways, like emotional eating. Give your feelings the space to be heard. This is also important so we can distinguish between real hunger and primary food hunger. Primary food hunger has to do with feeling unfulfilled in some area of your life, rather than experiencing a real nutritional or caloric deficiency. The primary foods could be areas like career, relationships, exercise, finances, spirituality, social life… all areas that are currently being affected by this pandemic. Without acknowledging stress or malnourishment in these areas, your ‘hunger’ might come out as cravings for food, ice cream, chips, etc. While we may not be able to solve all our problems right now, mindfulness can help us identify exactly what is wrong, and we can take appropriate actions from there. For instance, if you realize that isolation is impacting you more than you thought, start actively reaching out to friends or family for FaceTime or Zoom dates. While any type of journaling will work, I’m a big fan of the Morning Pages exercise, which is a tool used in Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way. She suggests writing three pages every morning, unedited. Her book is also helpful if you feel malnourished in the primary food area of creativity.
   6. Gratitude: Having a gratitude practice is a great way to center yourself in the present moment and boost your mood. I like to list five things daily in a notebook for which I’m grateful. If you find it difficult to think of things to list on a day that feels dark, go for the basics, the blue sky, nature which still blooms, the vibrancy of colors, air, clothing, shelter and food. Listing the basics will bring you back to your breath, to the present, to a place of perspective. And from there, you might be moved to take action to help those who lack these basics. Gratitude and generosity are healing mindfulness practices that encourage positive connection to the world and people around you.
   7. Connect with nature: Nature models to us what presence is. Nature just is. It teaches us what it looks like to ‘be,’ without judgment or effort. It can help us out of the spiraling, racing anxiety we might feel, and back to our natural biorhythms and the present moment.

 

If you’d like to dive deeper, there are numerous books on mindfulness which you might find helpful. One book in particular that I highly recommend is The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle.

 

These are tough times for us all, but there is always beauty to be seen in the present moment. Wishing you much peace, love and health.